PROFESSOR VIRCHOW AND EVOLUTION. 41 i 



plete truth carries with it the antidote against the bane 

 and danger which follow in the train of half know- 

 ledge. A cheerfully laborious and temperate people 

 a people morally strong can well afford to look 

 truth full in the face. Nor are they to be ruined by the 

 enunciation of one-sided theories, even when these may 

 appear to threaten the bases of society*' These words 

 of Helmholtz are, in my opinion, wiser and more applic* 

 able to the condition of Germany at the present moment 

 than those which express the fears of Professor Virchow. 

 It will be remembered that at the time of his lecture 

 his chief anxieties were directed towards France ; but 

 France has since that time given ample evidence of her 

 ability to crush, not only Socialists, but anti-Socialists, 

 who would impose on her a yoke which she refuses to bear. 

 In close connection with these utterances of Helm- 

 holtz, I place another utterance not less noble, which 

 I trust was understood and appreciated by those to 

 whom it was addressed. ' If,' said the President of the 

 British Association in his opening address in Dublin, 

 4 we could lay down beforehand the precise limits of 

 possible knowledge, the problem of physical science 

 would be already half solved. But the question to 

 which the scientific explorer has often to address him- 

 self is, not merely whether he is able to solve this or 

 that problem ; but whether he can so far unravel the 

 tangled threads of the matter with which he has to 

 deal, as to weave them into a definite problem at 

 all. ... If his eye seem dim, he must look steadfastly 

 and with hope into the misty vision, until the very 

 clouds wreathe themselves into definite forms. If his 

 ear seem dull, he must listen patiently and with sym- 

 pathetic trust to the intricate whisperings of Nature 

 the goddess, as she has been called, of a hundred voices 

 until here and there he can pick out a few simple 

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